1439 Conference participants from around the world converged on the Fukuoka International Congress Center in Fukuoka, Japan, from December 3-7, 2007, for the 17th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference (PVSEC-17). The PVSEC-17 Conference was dominated by Japan with 769 participants while the top six (6) was rounded out by Korea 182, Taiwan 123, USA 95, Germany 74, and China 22. The simultaneous PVSEC-17 Exhibition featuring 46 Exhibitors attracted 5027 visitors over the course of 3 days.

During the PVSEC-17 Conference, 627 Papers from 36 countries were presented including about 364 Poster Presentations. Germany vaulted to third in Papers from their participant attendance rank of fifth. Chairperson Professor Yamaguchi noted the above trend ratio of Papers to Attendees for PVSEC-17 versus peer international photovoltaic conferences: EU PVSEC, IEEE-PVSC, and WCPEC.

Area 65P-P4-36 EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON DETECTING A DISCONNECTION POSITION OF BETWEEN PV MODULES BY THE ELECTRIC CAPACITANCE MEASUREMENTJ. Yamaguchi1, T. Takashima2 and M. Ishida11University of Tsukuba, Japan, 2AIST, Japan

Area 74P-P1-48 RESEARCH ON THREE-DIMENSIONAL COORDINATES ACQUISITION FOR SHADOW ESTIMATION IN PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMY. Watanabe and K. KrokawaTokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan

Area 85P-P3-76 FINANCING A VERY LARGE SCALE PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM IN GOBI DESERTK. Megherbi1, M. Ito2, F. D. Ferretti1 and K. Kurokawa31Dexia Credit Local, France, 2Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, 3Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan

Area 86O-C9-01 A PRELIMINALY LIFE-CYCLE ANALYSIS OF A MEGA-SOLAR SYSTEM IN JAPANM. Ito1, M. Kudo2 and K. Kurokawa31Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, 2NTT Facilities, Inc., Japan, 3Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan

Alas, although I had begun the preparations for attending PVSEC-17, I was unable to get away that first full week in December. I believe I missed getting a sense of the Photovoltaic (PV) market vibe from Japan and the PV research underway in Japan and Asia.